England Lions 324 (Shaikh 91, Aldridge 78, Jayasuriya 5-102) lead Sri Lanka 139 by 185 runs
Of their solely tour match forward of their three-match Take a look at sequence in England, Sri Lanka face a struggle to save lots of the sport after conceding a heavy first-innings deficit to an inexperienced Lions crew in Worcester.
Sri Lanka had been bowled out for 139 in simply 43.5 overs on Wednesday, with no batter reaching 30 and Gloucestershire’s Zaman Akhter taking 5 for 32, the second five-wicket haul of his first-class profession. Lions took a six-run lead heading into the second day after dropping 4 wickets on the primary night, three of them to Prabath Jayasuriya’s left-arm spin.
However by the point rain introduced the second day to an early end, Lions had secured a first-innings lead of 185. Hamza Shaikh, the 18-year-old Warwickshire batter on first-class debut, made 91 from No. 4, sharing a 104-run stand for the seventh wicket with Kasey Aldridge, the Somerset allrounder, who himself made 78.
Jayasuriya completed with 5 for 102 from his 31.2 overs, with Kasun Rajitha taking 2 for 51 from 19. However Lahiru Kumara, who has not performed a aggressive match since June, was costly, leaking 92 runs from his 18 overs and dismissing solely tailender Ajeet Singh Dale.
Lions are fielding an under-strength aspect, with two first-class debutants in Shaikh and Farhan Ahmed, whose elder brother Rehan has performed in all three codecs for England. The ECB have solely pulled one participant – Josh Hull, who has made two appearances for Manchester Originals – out of the Hundred, which options a lot of the nation’s finest younger gamers.
Sri Lanka haven’t performed a Take a look at since their tour to Bangladesh earlier this yr, which ended firstly of April, and most of their squad haven’t performed any first-class cricket for the reason that home four-day match completed in early Might. Vishwa Fernando, who shouldn’t be taking part in in opposition to Lions, took 12 wickets in two appearances for Yorkshire in June.
Sri Lanka’s 18-man squad will journey from Worcester to Manchester after the tour sport forward of the primary of three Assessments in opposition to England, which begins on Wednesday at Emirates Outdated Trafford. They are going to be joined in Manchester by former England batter Ian Bell, who has been recruited as a batting coach for the sequence to offer native data.
Source link
